According to
The Hollywood News, Vic Armstrong has been signed up todirect a new film titled Shooting Stars, which,
thanks to computer magic, brings the stars of yesteryear back to cinemas –
including Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, and Humphrey Bogart. Filming will start
when Vic has wrapped up work Mission: Impossible 3. So is it possible that Vic
Armstrong will not be working on Casino Royale?

Vic Armstrong

Armstrong, who started working for the Broccoli
family as a stuntman in 1967’s You Only Live Twice and who acted as Second Unit
Director for Tomorrow Never Dies, The World Is Not Enough and Die Another Day,
has reportedly wrapped up his 2nd Unit work on Steven Spielberg’s War of the
Worlds. Anyway, and this is new and not yet confirmed information, Armstrong is
said to head the 2nd Unit of Tom Cruise’s 3rd outing as Ethan Hunt. Both, Cruise
and Armstrong, got to know each other at the set of War of the Worlds.
Additionally, Armstrong is an experienced action choreographer and has worked in
Shanghai for The Great Raid. Shanghai will supposedly feature as a location inM:I3.

Shooting of the latest Cruise movie will start in
Italy on July 18th, 2005 and is expected to last several months, because it
seems locations are set all around the globe. This means that the film will not
wrap before late autumn or early winter. After this, his work on Shooting Stars
could commence. It will only be Armstrong’s 2nd movie (after Joshua Tree, 1993)
where he acts as Director, which means that Armstrong will be involved in
pre-production, shooting and post-production. In case Casino Royale really
starts filming in January 2006, Vic Armstrong could not work on the 21st James
Bond film. Since Armstrong never was offered the Director’s chair for a Bond
movie, it is possible that he prefers Shooting Stars to Casino Royale.

Of course, this is all speculation and not based on
confirmed information. A big thank you to ‘Clopin’!
To discuss this news visitthis thread
in CBn’s Casino Royale forums.